February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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PESHAWAR, Feb 3: Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has said that the economic condition of the people could not be improved only with the provision of water and sanitation facilities to the people.

This, he stated while inaugurating a national round table conference on sanitation held at a local hotel on Monday.

The chief minister said that the economic condition alone could not be a yardstick to measure the development of a society. “Efficient services delivery system including basic education, health care, potable water and sanitation determines the status of a society,” he added.

The government, he said, would adopt a focussed approach to improve the water, sanitation, health and education sectors, and added that they were working to decentralize the facilities and put an efficient service delivery system at district level to benefit the people.

He was of the view that water and sanitation played an important role as far as the prevention from diseases was concerned and said that people should be educated about it.

He said that people in certain areas of the province undergo great hardships in getting potable water.

Mr Durrani said water resources were misused in the past and the present government, he maintained, wanted to rectify the situation. “We have accepted these as challenges and will overcome them,” he asserted.

He said that the international community had set a target to reduce backwardness and appreciated all efforts for holding of the two-day round table conference.